Dranoel

The front support isn't really necessary. It mainly just fills the gap between a bull barrel or cone bushing and the spring plug on uncompensated guns. You compensator will hide the gap. But if you can get one with the barrel support it's not a bad thing to have. Brownell's has both types with the support for $30. http://www.brownells.com/handgun-parts/recoil-parts/recoil-spring-plugs/1911-auto-reverse-plugs-prod7568.aspx

What I did: http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=200485

Yeah, my GF did that for a short while. Then one night we were watching a movie and after 15 min of her texting her friends I got up, grabbed my jacket and headed for the door. She asked me where I was going and I said, "I am here to be with you. Have the courtesy to be with me while I'm here." Hasn't been a problem since.

I am assuming your barrel is either a bull barrel or a cone bushing. If I am deciphering your description properly, your spring plug looks something like this: And you are wanting to replace it with something like this: If you do have the first type(collar), then your slide has been cut in the spring tunnel for that type of plug. If that is the case then I would not recommend using the second type(flanged). It can cause problems as that part of the slide takes an impact on the flange at the rear of the guide rod. The collar type should fit flush with the back of the spring tunnel on your slide, giving a larger impact area to take the hit. If you install a flanged type, the flange transfers the force of the impact to a thinned spring tunnel that will not be as strong on its own. Hope that makes sense and helps.

What is the very best Christmas present you ever got? The one that you still can't believe someone thought to give you? For me it was 20 years ago. My fiance, at that time, knew I was into combat flight simulators and at the time I was playing a lot of Red Barron. Though she had no real interest in the game she enjoyed watching me play. Playing the game in campaign mode, it took you through WWI, start to finish from either the American side or the German. You got transfers based on your performance and one night I got transferred to Eddie Rickenbacker's Squadron, The Laffayette Escadrille. I was so excited, I was jumping around the room. She didn't quite understand. So I explained that Rickenbacker had long been one of my heroes since he was from Ohio, America's ONLY ace during WWI, And a race car driver who not only drove at Indy, but bought the speedway (at a time when it was all but abandoned) and restored it. He SAVED the Indy 500. On Christmas that year, after all the other presents had been opened, she brought out a somewhat large box for me. I opened it to find a leather flight jacket. A replica of Eddie Rickenbacker's, complete with all the Laffayette Escadrille's painted on markings and the big "Indian head" on the back. I literally started crying. I still have that jacket. I will never part with it. I have, for years tried to find one similar but have had no success. She never told me where she found it or how she got it, but it always amazed me that she remembered my elation from that one night of playing a video game 6 months after the fact and got me the greatest, most thoughtful, Christmas present I ever got.

I don't want presents. I want presence.

Whatever you do, DON'T put the popular bio-hazard stickers on it or it will take 6 hrs to get through security.

You too?? They really get around.

I always liked the look of bare carbon fiber. Incorporated it into a few guitar builds. I'm not one who really goes for a lot of fancy bells and whistles on competition guns. But plain CF grips (no checkering or other cuts) look great, don't look out of place and actually feel pretty grippy. One of the things I am not liking about this set is that they appear to be a thin layer of CF cloth sandwiched between two sheets of acrylic. Looks ok but no grip. They also aren't wide enough on the frame. The front edge of the grip needs to be about 1/8" closer to the front strap.

So.... Had the .45 at the range for the second round of tests last week. Found the extractor needed some tuning, it was a little on the light side and not pulling the cases all the way out. The trigger was just over 4 lbs and it was shooting 5" low at 25'. So I headed home after about 25 rounds. Added some tension to the extractor, took some off the sear spring and shaved the front sight. Front sight was pretty easy with the dremel in the drill press. Wrapped the slide in masking tape and clamped it into on of my luthier vices at the angle I wanted to shape the sight blade to. Chucked up a reinforced cut-off wheel in the dremel and set the depth stop to give me the right height at the back of the blade. Made a couple dry passes to be sure I was going to be able to push the vice smoothly across the base of the dremel and the cut-off wheel was going to come out where I wanted. Then I slowly and fed the sight blade into the wheel from front to rear and just off to the left of the screw on the dremel. about 90 seconds to work it through and.... Bingo. Finished it off with a med then fine stone to remove the burrs and clean up the cutter marks and it's good to go. Meanwhile, my carbon fiber grips showed up. BTW: I ordered a different set than I showed earlier. I went with finger contours instead of the full wrap around and applied grip tape to the frontstrap. Not really happy with the grips so I may put the pachmayrs back on it or I may order a set of CF from VZ. In any event... Took it back to the range today to test the adjustments and get it sighted in properly. Trigger is light, smooth and crisp and the slide feels like it's on ball bearings. The gunsmith at L.E.P.D shot a mag full through it and loved it. So did two of the range officers. And naturally they couldn't believe I did this myself with a dremel tool. So how did it shoot? You tell me: It still needs some fine tuning on the extractor but I may just go ahead and order an Aftec for it. But it's basically shootin' time. I put a 100 through it today and will prob'ly put a couple more through it next week and work on the reliability. So how many of you still think: 1. I'm crazy for trying this. 2. Dremels and guns don't mix. 3. It will end up pooched and all my money and hard work will be down the drain. Come on. I know some of you were thinkin' at least two of those.

For the cost of the proper tools to try and do it yourself, you could have 4 trigger jobs done by a good gunsmith.

I'm gonna give away one of my secrets here.... After finishing a new build, I wipe everything down with WD-40 then sprinkle the rails with a fair coat of powdered graphite. The firing pin tunnel gets just graphite with the spring in the tunnel. I work it all in a little and go to the range. After 200 rounds it gets completely stripped thoroughly cleaned. The lockwork is then packed full of a combination of white lithium grease and powdered graphite and the rails are given a heavy coat of 70-90 gear lube and again a heavy coat of graphite. After another 200 rounds It gets stripped and cleaned again. After that you can use whatever lube you want. Even Rem Oil. But from there, when you lube the slide rails, do it with the gun assembled and just put a couple drops on the back of each rail with the gun pointed down. Let the oil work its way down for a minute or so and you're good to go. Sprinkle the rail with a light coat of graphite every 1000 rounds and you will have the slickest action you ever saw. The graphite embeds itself in the metal and does 2 things: It polishes the contacting surfaces and acts as a dry lubricant. After the treatment, oil tends to bead up on the rails like water on fresh wax. BTW: During the treatment stage the gun will get a little messy with oil and grease working out of it. Keep a rag handy, wipe it down and keep firing.

Thanks, Chuck. I guess in my search of the rules I got interrupted before I got to page 76. :S Looks like I should be safe on my positionings as Production is the only class that has restrictions and I don't even have a gun that would fit production rules. Scott, I used to shoot mostly Bowiling Pin matches and some steel. Shot a few local IPSC/USPSA type matches. (not sure if they were actually sanctioned) Looking to get back to shooting Pins and Steel and may try USPSA if there are some matches relatively close to Columbus, OH.

Back in the late 80s, early 90s, when I was last competing, I wore my holster just forward of my right hip and mag pouches just left of my zipper. It was very common back then from what I remember. But today I am seeing everyone with holster and mags much farther back. Have the rules changed preventing the more forward positioning?

The problem most people have with a stock mag release is the thumb, when in the shooting grip, is turned so that it is hard to bend the thumb around the arched grip panels on a single stack. With the double stack frames like the 2011, the grip frame is wider to accommodate the double stack mags. So to compensate for that extra width, the grip panels are thinner and have less arch so the mag button, lengthened for the wider mags and frame, is much easier to hit and operate. On my Caspian Hi-Cap I am using the mag release that came with the frame unmodified and I can reach it easily, even my fencepost thumb.

Women gotz no sense of humor about those sorts of things unless it involves putting men down.

The one that fits you best. 90% of the people here are going to tell you to get what they have because that's the best. And in every case it is.... For THEM. The best for you is what fits in your hand and points naturally. That said, when it comes to single stack 1911s the frame dimensions are going to be so close that you'll never really feel the difference. That brings it down to things like grip safety treatment, grips, arched or flat MSH, trigger pad length and the controls. All of those can be changed to suit you. So it really doesn't matter. So let me just make this recommendation; You named two very good quality 1911s. Stick with that thinking and you'll be fine. Don't get cheap. A competition gun is something you want to be durable and reliable. Cheap MIGHT get you there, but MIGHT isn't really reliable is it?

10mm 200 gr (13 g) DoubleTapW.F.N.G.C. Hard Cast 1,300 ft/s (400 m/s) 750 ft-lbf .45 ACP 200 gr (13 g) Speer Gold Dot JHP +P 1,080 ft/s (330 m/s) 518 ft·lbf Yeah I can see your point. 1mm really doesn't make any difference at all.

Sloppy slide to frame fit does not effect accuracy much. It DOES however effect reliability and longevity. If the slide is rattling around on the frame every time you shoot it, there will be problems. Generally, if there is enough play that I can feel a distinct clicking when I shake the gun side to side, it's too much. If I can HEAR it clicking, forget it.

9mm is always tricky when it comes to mags. Being shorter OAL than was intended for the 1911 and tapered to boot. Most guys I know tell me they have to constantly tune the mags, even for single stack. That was the main reason I went with .38super.

With Caspian now making frames for the Dan Wesson Hi-Cap you may find very soon there are some other options for mags. But I'll let you know how mine work when I get it shootable.

Thanks. Right now I'm just waiting on parts. I'm hoping the grips will be here this week for the 45. That will finish it. And again, hopefully, the barrel will be here this week for the .38S. Once it's here I can get it fitted up and the slide and barrel/comp will go to Gans Guns to be flat topped and the slide will also get lightened and a high bevel. Then finishing and testing. I was hoping to have both done by Christmas but it's starting to look like Jan before the .38s is ready. BTW: If anyone needs a couple 170mm mags I might make you a deal.

Secondly, the heavier the bullet the more recoil. Recoil is what you are trying to get rid of. Why add more?

I'm just tired. I find in my old age I tend to take a neutral attitude on most things. Right up to the point someone starts trying to push their ignorance, usually coupled with arrogance, down my throat. That usually gets a semi violent reaction from me. Not so much physically but the target will get an earful they don't want. And yeah, I understand the job search thing. I'm in between a rock and a hard place right now. I have the 2nd best paying job of my life and good benefits. But I also know this job will be going bye-bye in 18-24 months. I don't really want to wait til I'm out of work to start looking but I don't want to give up this job right now. And I know with the job market getting worse every year, by the time this job is done I may not be able to find another decent job. Especially when most HR people could give a crap what you know and how much experience you have. They're more interested in what font you typed your resume with and if it's formatted properly, even though they change their preferred format every 3 weeks. They no longer ask you questions to determine if you know what you're doing, it's more about your psychological profile. But I'll tell you this, the HR rep that asks me right off the bat, "Why do you want to work here?" Is gonna feel like a dumb-ass when I'm finished answering. Ok, so I'm gonna stop now. Before I really get rolling on my pet peaves. Like people who think their high post count makes them an expert and your low post count makes you a newb who doesn't know Jack.

Back up this claim, please, or do you mean "can be" as in "cannot be proven to be impossible" ? Anything can be hacked.